Bookworm Aspiration Challenge
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a huge Sims fan, and I’m
especially fond of mods and all sorts of custom content for the game. One thing
that has helped me a lot is to use my hyperfixation on this game to help me
achieve my own real-life goals: develop habits, stick to plans, improve my
personal routine, etc… I’ve used gamification a lot in my life and I love it! After
trying ilkavelle’s “Hobby Aspirations Bundle” (you can get it HERE),
which allows you to have aspirations based on your Sim’s hobbies, I decided I
would love to try her Bookworm Aspiration in real life. In the game, it looks
something like this:
Obviously, some things will have to be tweaked, at least for my purposes (you’re free to try the mod’s version). I’ll walk you through it and how this Aspiration could be applied to real life.
1) Average Reader
◻ Finish Reading 3 Books
◻ Own 20 Books in your Bookcase
◻ Read a Book in a Library
Own 20 Books in your Bookcase
Most people will probably have started with more than 20 books in their bookcase and/or not be able to afford 20 more just like that. If you’re happy with buying more books (be it physical copies, ebooks or audiobooks), then keep this part as it is and just list the book titles. But, if that’s not feasible to you, you can change the title of this section to something like:
➼ Own X (affordable) number of books (keep in mind that there will be another step like this one later on, so don’t spend ALL of your money on books just yet.
➼ Make a TBR list of 20 books: choose 20 books that will be your next reads. This might help guide your reading for the next months, even if you end up adding new books later on or changing it a bit.
➼ Analyse X number of books: 20 might be too many, but you can choose a number that is doable for you. I define Analyse as choosing one book (which you might have read or not) and read it with care, read other materials about it, think about the meaning and context of the writing, get to know the author, the history of the book, etc… This is how I use the Analyse option in real life but, of course, you can adapt it to your taste and personal goals.
➼ Achieve Level X of Bookworm Skill: along with this challenge, I’m also creating a new Sims 4-style skill, the Bookworm skill. You can find out more about it HERE. If you’re joining me on developing that skill you can choose to achieve a certain level of that skill in here. Usually, Sims’ challenges with associated skills start with achieving level 4 (then 6, then finally 10), so you can use that here instead.
➼ Something else altogether: choose a step that you believe will keep you motivated and help you reach your own goals.
Read a Book in a Library
If it isn’t possible for you to read a WHOLE book in a library (which is completely understandable), then change it to something like “Read a book you checked out from a Library”, for example; or into something else that might be more useful to you.
2) Avid Reader
◻ Finish Reading 10 books
◻ Read for 2 Straight Hours While Focused
◻ Discuss Recently Read Books With 3 Different Sims
Read for 2 Straight Hours While Focused
Now, this will also depend on how you choose to define “Focused” in real life. To me, I choose to read with intention, really get into the book, read carefully word for word until I lose track of time. This might be something that you do intentionally or something that just happens when you’re reading a good book.
Discuss Recently Read Books With 3 Different Sims
You can choose to keep this as is and simply engage in conversation about books you’ve recently read with 3 different people, or simply post about books you’ve read recently 3 times (or something else you come up with).
3) Bookworm
◻ Finish Reading 25 Books
◻ Own 60 Books in your Bookcase
◻ Enthuse about Favourite Books with 5 Different Sims
◻ Brag about Book Collection to 5 Different Sims
Finish Reading 25 Books
This can be interpreted as 25 more books, or 25 books total, meaning you’ll only need to read 15 more books since the previous level. It’s up to you.
Enthuse about Favourite Books with 5 Different Sims
Again, you can choose to do this with 5 people or in 5 different posts, for example. Just make sure you enthuse enthusiastically!
Brag about Book Collection to 5 Different Sims
As mentioned, you can talk with 5 different people or just create 5 different posts/content. You can choose to brag about the tbr list you've compiled (if you chose to do that), the books you own in general, the books you've read during this challenge, etc... Just feel free to brag about anything book related that is important to you. It's ok. Brag away!
So, what will my own challenge look like? Let's see:
My very own Book Aspiration Challenge
1) Average Reader
◻ Finish Reading 3 Books
◻ Make a TBR list of 20 books
◻ Read a Book in a Library
2) Avid Reader
◻ Finish Reading 10 books
◻ Read for 2 Straight Hours While Focused
◻ Discuss Recently Read Books With 3 Different Sims
3) Bookworm
◻ Finish Reading 25 Books
◻ Make a TBR list of 60 books
◻ Enthuse about Favourite Books with 5 Different Sims
◻ Brag about Book Collection to 5 Different Sims
I would love to see what your challenge will look like though. Don't be afraid to reach out and geek out: I'm always happy to talk Sims, books and challenges!
